Skip to main content
Log in

Structure and origin of complex cortical activity during decision making

  • Research Briefing
  • Published:

From Nature Neuroscience

View current issue Submit your manuscript

Frontal cortex activity contains a mixture of signals for different behavioral and cognitive processes. Analysis of 20,000 frontal cortical neurons during a tactile decision-making task revealed functional clusters encoding specific behavioral variables. By manipulating the inputs to frontal cortex, we attributed the origin of their activities to inputs from the thalamus.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1: Diverse activity in frontal cortex neurons and its dependence on the thalamus.

References

  1. Raposo, D., Kaufman, M. T. & Churchland, A. K. A category-free neural population supports evolving demands during decision-making. Nat. Neurosci. 17, 1784–1792 (2014). This paper reports random mixtures of selectivity in rat parietal cortical neurons during decision making.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Mante, V. et al. Context-dependent computation by recurrent dynamics in prefrontal cortex. Nature 503, 78–84 (2013). This paper reports that a dynamical process within the same population of frontal cortical neurons controls context-dependent decision making in monkeys.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Hirokawa, J. et al. Frontal cortex neuron types categorically encode single decision variables. Nature 576, 446–451 (2019). This paper revealed mouse frontal cortical neurons encoding specific decision variables.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Dubreuil, A. et al. The role of population structure in computations through neural dynamics. Nat. Neurosci. 25, 783–794 (2022). This paper reports that the structure and selectivity of artificial neural networks depends on the complexity of the task performed.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Guo, Z. V. et al. Maintenance of persistent activity in a frontal thalamocortical loop. Nature 545, 181–186 (2017). This paper reports that persistent preparatory activity in mouse frontal cortex requires inputs from the thalamus.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Additional information

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

This is a summary of: Yang, W., Tipparaju, S. L., Chen, G. & Li, N. Thalamus-driven functional populations in frontal cortex support decision-making. Nat. Neurosci. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-022-01171-w (2022).

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Structure and origin of complex cortical activity during decision making. Nat Neurosci 25, 1255–1256 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-022-01173-8

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-022-01173-8

  • Springer Nature America, Inc.

Navigation